Personality, Intelligence and Wisdom Flashcards
Outline some of the key definitions of intelligence.
-What an intelligence test measures
-The ability to learn and adapt to the environment
-Confucian - benevolence and doing what’s right, enjoying learning
-Taoist - humility, freedom from conventional standards.
-USA - practical problem solving, verbal ability and social competence
Basically, there are lots of different ideas of what intelligence means.
What are the theories and models of intelligence?
General intelligence Crystal vs. fluid intelligence Biology and genetics Multiple intelligences PPIK Theory (investment theories) Trait complexes
What is IQ split into?
- Crystal (Gc) – learnt (83-93%)
- Fluid (Gf) – biological potential (7-17%)
What skills are part of crystal intelligence?
Spelling, writing and oral style.
What skills are part of fluid intelligence?
Reading speed, Piagetian reasoning, sequential and inductive reasoning.
Outline fluid intelligence.
- Focuses on process independent of context or knowledge domain
- Seen to include executive control and working memory tasks, e.g. holding objects in memory (may be referred to as fluid cognition)
- Seen as biologically instantiated in the prefrontal cortex
- Declines later in life
- Measured by Raven’s progressive matrices - fill in the gap, spatial reasoning.
Outline crystal intelligence.
- A product of Gf
- Gc test: vocabulary etc. and as such represent acquired knowledge and not ‘intelligence’
- Knowledge (acquired) increases over life
What support is there for Gf-Gc theory?
According to Blair (2006), psychometric data generally supports the Gf-Gc theory - neuropsychological data shows that PFC damage leaves g intact but Gf substantially reduced, Gf and Gc have different developmental trajectories, and children with phenylketonuria (PKU) show Gf deficits
Outline the Flynn effect.
A generational rise in IQ by on average of 10 points (range 5-20 points; SD = 15) which is seen across at least 14 different countries. It’s more substantial for Gf than Gc, and varies between countries - it’s highest in the Netherlands, below average in the UK, eased in Sweden and reversed in Norway.
What is the cause of the Flynn effect?
Blair revised - Gf, working memory and executive functions aren’t necessarily the same thing; this conflates Gf with fluid cognition. The PFC is also not always involved in executive function. Blair only shows that Gc and Gf are distinguishable, and erroneously conflates g with Gc. Thus this is actually consistent with Cattell and Horn’s Gf-Gc theory (Stanovich).
According to behavioural genetics, what amount of intelligence is heritable?
Heritability estimates range from .48-.62 (up to .80), and Jenson’s Correlated vectors suggests that heritability is higher for sub-tests that highly correlate with g.
What environmental factors affect heritability of ‘g’?
- Age - h2 increases with age from 40% in childhood to 60% in adulthood and 80% in old age
- Socio-economic status - h2 is high for high SES (72%) but virtually zero for low SES (perhaps high stress levels influence gene expression?)
What did Sternberg et al. (2005) state about the h^2 of ‘g’?
- h2 doesn’t allow inference to between group differences - heritability is the proportion of individual difference variation that’s attributable to genetic variation (50% heritability doesn’t mean 50% is inherited).
- It’s a population measure – cannot be applied to individuals
- h2 isn’t the same as genetic influence - it’s still affected by environmental factors.
- High h2 doesn’t mean that modification isn’t possible
What is the heritability-Flynn paradox?
If heritability is so strong and environmental effect is so small on IQ, how can changes in the environment create large changes in IQ?
What solutions are there to the Heritability-Flynn effect paradox?
Social multipliers, averaging and gene-environment matching (correlation between g and E).
Outline the social multipliers solution to the Heritability-Flynn effect paradox.
Social multipliers are things that happen in the environment/world that change how we interact. Dickens and Flynn (2001) wrote that the environment had a large effect - people’s IQs are affected by both environment and genes, but also their environments are matched to their IQs.
What brain regions biologically correlate to IQ?
According to a meta-analysis of brain volume:
- g correlates .33 with brain volume
- g correlates with genetically determined frontal regions (twin studies)
Grey matter (GM) positively correlated in all 4 lobes (primarily frontal) with IQ
Distributed white matter correlates but to less of an extent than for GM.
Outline P-FIT (parietofrontal integration) theory (Jung and Haier, 2007).
Intelligence starts with sensory processes at the back of the brain, then parietal (abstraction etc.), then frontal cortex. fMRI and MRI data used, shows correlation with IQ. Suggests bottom-up process.
